Originally Posted by
MikeMpls
Windfall???? If you think anyone is actually profiting from this, you have no clue.
The smashing success was the manner in which the TS/S moderators managed to alienate so many of their users so quickly. And no, there was disciplinary action in regard to me -- I simply took note of the rapidly souring atmosphere (esp. the accumulating body count) and chose to quit posting there. It had reached the point where it was no longer worthy of my contribution.
Travel Underground was created about three weeks later when I was informed that "It is never cool to call out a mod.". In the isolated environment that many FT moderators seem to create for themselves, over time moderation -- and what the moderators want -- becomes an end in itself at the expense of the members. I've seen this happen a number of times over the years in several forums.
The only way this is ever going to be dealt with is to make the moderators answerable to TalkBoard and shine a lot more sunlight into the process. As it is, you have an elected board that is little more than another FT in-crowd. Give TalkBoard some teeth and made the moderators accountable.
As a member of the TB, this concerns me deeply. If current TOS alienates posters enough to go start their own forums, that could end up being bad, bad news for the future of FT.
If, say, enough UA posters get fed up with mega-threading, they could go start a board, etc, etc. These issue-specific boards have a spotty success record, but just the fact that people feel motivated to go start them tells us we have some work to do.
Meanwhile, one of the 'selling points' of Milepoint is that they are 'friendly,' a thinly veiled assertion of having a different approach to moderation. Of course, the approach there is more in the paid staff direction. A non-starter here.
I think Mike as well as the DL mods and the Cbuzz mods and the old OMNI mods have given us a terrific model to follow in terms of giving posters more ownership over the forums they frequent by allowing collaborative input to day-to-day management.
FT has always been an IBB leader, and in the competitive world of mile travel and points IBBs, this feature would really set FT apart as a cut above in terms of user-friendliness and responsiveness. ^
Originally Posted by
Markie
So you're not thinking of requiring the Mods in that forum to participate in that thread and to answer posters complaints?
lol, no, I can't require anyone to do anything. What am I going to do, suspend mods who don't participate!?
No, all the TB can do (right now) is make recommendations regarding the TOS and forum structure. But I would like to think that the mods would all be not only willing but happy to engage in constructive, collaborative feedback from the posters they serve on the forums they moderate.